GRASS FINCH. 503 



a distance from its real location. Finding this trick also unavailing, 

 and seeing me stoop and examine her treasures, she speedUy approached, 

 and began making the most piteous lamentations, which she continued 

 until I was at a considerable distance from her nest. The next morn- 

 ing I made her another visit, and again she varied her artifice, by leav- 

 ing her nest, while I was at a greater distance than on either of my 

 other visits, and flying into concealment as speedily as possible, evident- 

 ly in hopes her flight would not be noticed. To how great a nimiber 

 and variety she would have carried her stratagems I am unable to say, 

 for on visiting the spot on the fourth day I was sorry to find the nest 

 empty and deserted. Was this bird guided by instinct or by reason ? 

 The egg measures seven-eighths of an inch in length, and eleven-six- 

 teenths in breadth, and is of a bluish-white, covered nearly equally with 

 blotches of a reddish-brovm colour. They are not always exactly uni- 

 form in colour and markings, but sufficiently so to be readily recognised. 

 They resemble not a little the eggs of Fringilla maritima and F. palus- 

 tris ; but are distinguishable from both. They are also sometimes marked 

 with hair-lines of a dark brown colour, irregularly scattered over the 

 whole egg. 



INDIGO BUNTING. 



Fringilla cyanea, Wils. 



PLATE LXXIV. Vol. I. p. 377. 



I observed this species breeding in the Texas late in April, and it 

 would appear from a note sent by my friend Dr T. M. Brewer of Boston, 

 that it reaches the neighbourhood of that city early in June, but does 

 not commence its nest there until the latter part of that month, or early 

 in July. He further states that it " is abundant near Boston, and when 

 it arrives in spring generally chooses the highest chimney-tops to alight 

 upon. They appear much attached to particular districts. A pair has 

 now for five years in succession built in my father's garden, but this 

 year, something would seem to have befallen them, for they have not 

 made their appearance. One year they raised a second brood. This 



